Fairy of the Lake

Kris Nedy

Description

Michaela, a little girl from a mountain village, dreams of being the most beautiful girl in the world. One day she gets lost in the forest and encounters the Fairy of the Lake, who makes her wish come true. With the Fairy's gift, however, comes a dark snake, which creeps into Michaela's chest and takes control of her heart, changing not only her looks, but her inner self as well. The miraculous transformation of Michaela quickly makes her gain popularity and soon, she is invited to the castle, where she becomes a maid of honor to Princess Jasmine. In the royal court, Michaela leads a very exciting life, full of unexpected twists. At the same time, she becomes more and more wicked and magical creatures begin a fight on her behalf against evil. Will the Swamp Witch, the old augur and shape-shifter Aetius, and the Spirit of the Crystal Mountain help Michaela get rid of the evil shadow inside her and find her true self? It is up to you to discover!

Sujets

• Fantasy (canción de Mariah Carey)
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 30 avril 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528963749
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Fairy of the Lake
Kris Nedy
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-04-30
The Fairy of the Lake About The Author About The Book Dedication Copyright Information Preface Part One Michaela Chapter I Michaela Finds the Lake Chapter II The Gift of the Fairy Chapter III The Royal Messenger Chapter IV Arrival at the Castle Chapter V Sylvia Chapter VI The Ball Chapter VII Princess Michaela Part Two The Spirit of the Crystal Mountain Chapter VIII The Crystal Mountain Chapter IX The Commandments of the Spirit Chapter X The Unknown Disease Chapter XI The Swamp Witch Chapter XII The Fairy of the Lake
About The Author
Kris Nedy was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. After he completed a master’s degree in Archaeology, he immigrated to Canada, where he passed through all the struggles of an immigrant’s life, rising from a dishwasher to a college-graduated computer technician, working for a government institution.
Besides his scientific publications, this is his first attempt at fiction. He lives in Montreal, Canada, with his wife and his daughter.
About The Book
Michaela, a little girl from a mountain village, dreams of being the most beautiful girl in the world. One day she gets lost in the forest and encounters the Fairy of the Lake, who makes her wish come true. With the Fairy’s gift, however, comes a dark snake, which creeps into Michaela’s chest and takes control of her heart, changing not only her looks, but her inner self as well. The miraculous transformation of Michaela quickly makes her gain popularity and soon, she is invited to the castle, where she becomes a maid of honor to Princess Jasmine. In the royal court, Michaela leads a very exciting life, full of unexpected twists. At the same time, she becomes more and more wicked and magical creatures begin a fight on her behalf against evil. Will the Swamp Witch, the old augur and shape-shifter Aetius, and the Spirit of the Crystal Mountain help Michaela get rid of the evil shadow inside her and find her true self? It is up to you to discover!
Dedication
To Mira, my first reader and editor, with love.
Copyright Information
Copyright © Kris Nedy (2019)
The right of Kris Nedy to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528922296 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528922302 (Kindle e-book)
ISBN 9781528963749 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ

Preface
When I was a little boy, I adored fairy tales about heroes and knights, brave kings and beautiful princesses, and dreadful monsters and powerful magicians. At that time, I was too young to read by myself and my mother spent hours and hours with me, reading me tales from Hans Christian Andersen to the Brothers Grimm, and Homer. She often told me myths and legends about the Titans, the ancient Greek gods, and the heroes of the Trojan War. Thanks to her, I fell in love with an enchanted world, full of magical creatures. Like most adults, however, she was a busy person and rarely had time for me.
Every time when my mother refused to tell me a bedtime story, I pretended to fall asleep and as soon as she left the room, I slipped out of bed and went to the window. I pulled the curtains open, climbed on a chair and spent hours watching the ink blue sky studded with stars. They were so bright, so enchantingly beautiful, and somehow alive, blinking to me, every one of them a new, unknown universe. Since I was always eager for new exciting stories, I begged the stars aloud, “Please, tell me a story! Please, tell me about your worlds!”
And because they did not respond, I usually ended up inventing some story and telling it to myself.
Later on, I learned how to read, and I no longer needed to ask somebody to tell me stories—there were so many on the shelves of every library and bookstore! Some were fascinating and passionate, others humdrum, but every one of them was a window that revealed new horizons before me.
The time flew by and one day I found myself on the eve of my thirtieth birthday. On that night, I had a strange dream. I stayed in the middle of the black sky, surrounded by stars. Just in front of me stood out an immense creature in the shape of a gigantic seahorse, consisting of thousands of stars, which made its body shine with an incredible brilliance. Wrapped in utter silence, we were staring at each other. I felt like a speck of dust in the sky before this majestic and terrific creature, the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Then suddenly its mighty voice boomed out as though it came from a long tube,
“Welcome to my world, my young friend. Finally, the time has come to meet one another. When you were a little boy, you often called me and asked me to tell you stories, remember?”
“Who are you?” I asked, filled with dread and awe.
“You can call me the Starry Dragon for your convenience, as my real name is rather complicated,” said the starry creature, “I am a messenger of the stars, which you loved so much as a little boy. I have a mission for you, so listen to me closely. I intend to take you to wonderful worlds and to show you amazing things. From now on until your 33rd birthday, your dreams will be always consistent and intense, and each one of them will be a different tale. My request to you is to write everything that I’ll show you and then to narrate it to people. It will be no easy task to do since real, pulsating life is hard to be sealed on a piece of paper. Sometimes, you will observe creatures and things, whose real names you don’t even know, things that don’t exist on your planet, and events hard to explain. Don’t worry, though, because I will be always with you and will help you in this endeavour.”
“I’m not sure I can handle this task,” I said hesitantly, “And what’s the use of all this anyway? Everybody knows that dreams are not real, they are only broken pieces of our unconscious mind and figments of our imagination.”
“You don’t know what is real and what is not,” boomed the Starry Dragon, “there are dreams where you can travel to other worlds, and believe me, they are as real as the one of your everyday life. There you can get hurt or even die as easily as in your own world. Don’t underestimate the greatness of the universe and don’t boil down all to your own limited knowledge! As far as I know, you have been always curious, asking questions all the time about this and that. Now you can get the answers. But if you want to travel with me, you need to be brave and ready for incredible adventures, no matter how dangerous they could be.”
“Well, I think I’m not really ready for adventures,” I blurted out, “I have a lot of my plate right now—family, work… Besides, I have never planned to be a writer.”
“You will be one because I will make you one!” echoed the dragon’s voice, “Don’t be a coward! You called me first and now you cannot back out. You have to promise me that you’ll write the stories I’ll show you because this is the only way to tell the people the things you’ll see. Accept your destiny or you’ll stay with me forever and you’ll never see your family again.”
“OK, I promise then,” I muttered and hardly uttered it, the dragon disappeared.
I woke up with a start. It was still dark outside. I propped on an elbow, my heart banging. “It’s OK, that was only a dream and the dreams are not real!” I comforted myself.
But in a few days, the Starry Dragon came again in my sleep and the incredible adventure began. From then on, for three years, I had many vivid dreams in which I experienced some kind of separate reality. On the level of perception and control, this reality was comparable to my everyday life. It was as though I had been moved with my entire being to a new world where time and space did not matter. In this state of mind, I was able to observe scenes and situations that happened in places I had never seen before. It was like participating in a movie and going through different stories along with their main characters.
I was in the middle of the action, mingled with strange people and magical creatures, only they were never aware of my presence. They spoke strange languages but I could understand what they were saying on some higher, supernatural level. Furthermore, not only could I witness the events and follow the thread of every single story, but I could also read the minds of the characters and understand the exact motivation behind every one of their acts. I think it is not necessary to mention how incredibly exciting all that was to me.
And now, let me tell you the first story that the Starry Dragon showed me. It happened several days after our first meeting. I fell asleep and then I found myself alone in the blackness, surrounded by stars and listening to its deep, booming voice.
“Are you ready for your first adventure, my young friend?” the dragon asked, “The story you’ll see is about the damage that vanity causes. Life, devoted to narcissism and selfishness is one of the worst things that can happen to someone. People don’t realise that their egocentricity dries their soul up and make them cold, unfeeling, and stupid, which leads them to hollow ambitions and terrible mistakes. Remember: only the fools are looking for a vain prize, and they will get what they deserve.”
The Starry Dragon had hardly spoken its last words when bright lightning tore the sky. I glimpsed at the dragon for only a second be